Response to Selection. During the development of GIFT in the Philippines, responses to selection for improvement in weight at harvest (% gain over the previous generation) over five generation of selection were 19.1%, 13.5%, 9.2%, 17.8%, and 6.2%, respectively, totaling 65.8%. These result have not yet been adequately published in peer-reviewed journals, and remain somewhat controversial. The main point at issue is the validity of control values used for the World Fish Center are currently reanalyzing the date from this work, and further publications concerning responses to selection are expected in 2005. Critics have noted that the synthetic base population itself, before any selective breeding, was reported to have a 60% advantage in harvest weight over widely famed Philippine strains during development of the synthetic base population. Together with the subsequent responses to selection, this represents a claimed growth performance advantage of about 125% for GIFT over Phillippine farmed strains.